DOES IQ SCORE OR YOUR S.A.T. SCORES MATTER?

Good day, recently I was listening to an audio book by Dr. Stanley called The Millionaire Mind.  The same author wrote the best seller The Millionaire Next Door. One of the things that captured my attention and brought about the topic of this blog post was the discussion about the correlation or rather lack there of, between academic aptitude and standardized  tests such as IQ, SAT, LSAT, MCAT, and success in life financially. 

I think you would be surprised at the findings and it may also change your parenting style if you are a parent.  I know for a fact I will be changing mine immediately. 

Perhaps I hinted a bit to the conclusion by my previous paragraph, but if you have not surmised by now, from interviews collected from a multitude of self made first generation millionaires and multimillionaires, there is very little evidence showing a positive correlation between high scores on standardized tests and accumulating wealth.  In fact there is an opposite trend.  In most cases the students that excelled at these test are working or are the employees of those students that did not do well at all in the same tests.  

What interviews conducted with mega millionaires show is that most of them bombed their IQ or college entrance  exams.  Most we're labeled dumb, underperforming, amount to nothing etc.  The one thing they all had in common however, was that they did not take those labels to heart. Usually they had supportive parents, or were lucky enough to have had a mentor early in life to tell them that they could achieve their dreams regardless of the labels. Some succeeded in an attempt to prove those nay sayers wrong. Some succeeded because they came to the conclusion that if their grades and school standing were not going to help them get into the lucrative careers they had to rely on themselves to make it, and make it they did. 

Thankfully in this country at least, the fact that you do not get into a prestigious higher learning institution does NOT mean you are done financially speaking.  As long as you have the drive and persistence, you can succeed. It has been proven. It is not a fluke. In fact it is the rule rather than the exception.  Most multimillionaires are business owners and entrepreneurs. Only a small fraction of the top 1% net worth individuals are professionals such as doctors or lawyers.  What does this mean? It means that other factors besides academic excellence influenced their success, because frankly they were not the top of their class by standard measures.  Most realized that if they were going to make it financially they would have to depend on and invest in themselves.  They are business owners because they believed with their grades they would not be able to get a good job. They invest the bulk of their money in businesses as apposed to stocks, because they believe the people who sell stocks are concentrating way too much in the SELLING to be able to be proficient in the actual quality of what they are selling. Even so they all do have a small portion of their wealth managed by a large institution, but that usually entails the profits of investing in their own business.  

What was important in success, was social skills, leadership, ability to take a hit and keep on going.  The cream of the crop in school rarely had to deal with adversity until they got into the real world. Then what happens when the company that they work for is sold to another company and their job becomes redundant? They face defeat perhaps for the first time in their life.  Conversely the so called average students and those who were mistaken for being "underachievers" had to deal with set backs and ridicule all  their lives, and if given the positive encouragement, learned to deal with it positively.  They realized that just because one person tells you "no" it does not mean you stop. In fact they learn quickly that the more they persevere the more they benefit and it becomes their routine to work hard, believe in themselves, work with others, and learn leadership in other areas than academia.  

This continuous hammering that these so called second rate students received through their school years can be likened to how a Samurai Sword is created.  Arguably the finest and strongest form of bladed weapons, the katana is made by rolling steel repeatedly back on itself and hammering it down over and over until the final product is so strong  that it can cut through armor.  Few if any successful people have achieved their success without taking that occasional bump backwards.  There is a lesson in that for us parents.  

Thankfully as I write this post in 2012, our school systems are starting to see and give more weight to other characteristics than pure academic excellence.  As parents we need to make sure we do not kill the spirit of the student because of a less than stellar IQ or SAT score.  We need to ingrain in our children the will to succeed regardless of what college they attend.  The important thing is that they COMPLETE their education. In college it is important that they take part in different activities and yes even the parties and social interactions have their place in contributing to the ultimate success they achieve in life.  Instead of reacting with disappointment when the student brings home a bad grade, it is important that they  understand that they can do better. Then they need to come up with a plan, with your help, on how they can do better.  Most importantly they need to learn to finish.  The majority of the millionaires interviewed, accounted the habit of finishing a task and sticking to it till it was done no matter how many times it took to achieve it as one of the top characteristics that contributed to their success.  Intelligence, great schools, high test scores ranked in lowest characteristics by most millionaires and by all who's net worth was 10 million dollars or more.    

I shudder at the thought of how many students took those labels in early school years to heart? How much more productive would we as a country be now and in the future if more encouragement is given to those students who are not necessarily the top tier academic scholars? 

What about you? Think back and see if those labels early in school applied to you? How have you responded to those early imprinting? The good new is that it is not too late.  You can see that you can ignore all those labels if they applied to you in your early school career. Perhaps you had to leave school? Perhaps you were told you would not be suited for a career in a certain field? Perhaps you though you could not do what you love because you did not have the right education? All of that is a bunch of crap.  If you want to be a success you need to work for it and don't quit until you have achieved it.  It is never too late to get the education you need.  If one bank refuses to give you a loan for an idea go to 10 others and ask.   Find other people in the business sector that could be sympathetic to your business plan, and do joint venture with them.  Rarely people succeed on their own merits when it comes to being a multimillionaire.  Success takes the ability to work well with others.

You don't find this type of information publicized because most millionaires still think of themselves as those labels they were given and therefore are modest. They are frequently surprised at how well they have done. Also their stories are rarely glamorous and exciting.  They work hard, live comfortably but well bellow their means, and are mostly family oriented.  Their stories do not make a good reality T.V. show, and they are ok with that.

How cool is this information from the stand point of The Law of Attraction? We can see that intellect alone is rarely enough to get us to financial security, wealth, and success.  The multimillionaires in Dr. Stanley's book had a tremendous desire to be wealthy and for one reason or another they steadfastly stuck to those goals. Some had their backs against the wall with a family to support and no where to go, so they went for it and started their own business. That is a great source of vibrational power. When you "have to get it done" all sort of amazing opportunities come your way because you are sending a very powerful signal of asking and you are open to receive, the 2 key elements of making The Law of Attraction work for you. Opportunities come your way as it is the law. Since the multimillionaires in question had the opportunities to work hard and look for opportunities all their lives, when opportunities came, no only did they see them, but they also took advantage of them.    Nothing was given to them with ease in most cases. That is what prepared them to see the opportunity and have open minds.

I hope this post was helpful and interesting to you. As always please feel free to comment and definitely  share this with your friends.